Former Manchester City goalkeeper Joe Hart has said he trusts chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak’s insistence that the club are innocent of breaking the Premier League’s financial rules.
City have been found guilty of the majority of the 115 breaches of financial rules they had been accused of by the Premier League, although they are set to appeal against the ruling. Al Mubarak said he remains committed to “proving the club’s innocence” and that the “process still has a long way to run”.
Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live’s Monday Night Club, Hart said of the chairman: “My honest opinion is I’ve got no reason not to trust Khaldoon. What he said is enough for me.” He described Al Mubarak as someone who has “led the club brilliantly” and as a person to trust, adding: “I loved how he spoke. I loved the letter because that was from someone who cared about the club.”
Hart said that because there was “nothing concrete”, the matter was one of allowing things to “play out”, and that none of his achievements are in any way tarnished. “If Man City are found guilty, which I don’t think they are because of what Khaldoon said, then there’s conversations to be had,” he said. “But right now I’m very confident and very, very calm. I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved and what I did with Manchester City and what we achieved as a team. And that doesn’t change. That doesn’t change until you tell me.”
The 39-year-old spent a decade at City, making 348 appearances for the club in all competitions between 2006 and 2016. During that time he won the Premier League twice, in 2011-12 and 2013-14, the League Cup twice, in 2013-14 and 2015-16, and the FA Cup in 2010-11. He was capped 75 times by England.
Hart said the news had not prompted him to discuss the situation with his former City team-mates because he “can’t get involved in the ifs, buts and maybes”. “I did what I did. I lined up 11 v 11 and had it out on the pitch. I won some games, lost some games, drew some games, and I shook hands and I walked off,” he said. “I know what I did, I know what we did, and I know how it happened. It didn’t feel like we were scheming or plotting.”
The charges against City covered a wide range of alleged rule breaches, centring on claims that the club inflated sponsorship revenue from connected companies and made other “off the books” payments to circumvent financial regulations.